Jemma7729 [Paperback]

Around the year 2200, everyone in North America lives in domes. They have been told by AGNA (Administrative Government of North America), who controls North America with an iron fist, that the atmosphere is toxic and deadly. Women have had all rights taken away from them, under the guise of protecting them.

Jemma7729 (everyone's name is a group of letters and numbers) is someone who does not act "appropriately." When she is five years old, Jemma gets into a fight with a boy at school. Jemma is the one who must publicly apologize to the whole school. Females are not allowed to show aggression, or express an opinion. While her mother is away for a few days, Jemma's father takes her Outside (there is nothing wrong with the air) and shows her the stars on a clear night. For Jemma, there is no going back.

At ten years old, everyone must go through Choosing Day, where they must choose what they want to do for the rest of their lives. Jemma has few available options, the least awful of which is Woman Who Marries. She is very uninterested in spending the rest of her life pleasing her husband, arranging flowers and being an AGNA spy (like her mother). Jemma refuses to choose, and is immediately hauled to "rehab" (prison), where, after a year of harsh techniques to break her spirit, bordering on torture, she escapes to the outside world. Jemma is eleven years old.

Jemma quickly learns to live on her own and spends her time sabotaging the factories that make the chemicals to keep women "altered" (docile and compliant). After a couple of years, the "underground" catches up to Jemma, and convinces her to join them. She spends the next several years traveling to this small town or that isolated hamlet, letting the people know that they are not alone. Meantime, AGNA has described Jemma as some sort of horrible terrorist who likes killing innocent people, which is totally untrue.

This near future, one person against the system, story, might seem a little basic, but the author does a fine job with it. It's interesting, plausible and it's well worth reading.

This is one of the most interesting Science Fiction novels I've read in a long time. What makes Jemma7729 stand out is the strong heroine and the feminist issues Wray weaves in the story, making the reader wonder and think at its implications.

It is the late 22nd century in the United States. The government as we know it has completely collapsed. People live under huge city domes, afraid of what lies on the outside. Brainwashed by AGNA -- the State Security of the Administrative Government of North America -- they have been told to be believe that the `outside' is toxic and inside the dome is the only safe place for them. Feminism has vanished. Indeed, any type of feminist idea is violently suppressed and women are accused of the destruction of democracy and the `old regime'.

The story is told in the first person by Jemma herself, and begins when she is but a stubborn, willful young girl of seven. From the very beginning she questions her world and its laws, a behaviour that only leads to her punishment and incarceration at the tender age of ten. The event emotionally destroys her loving parents, but it's either that or death for Jemma. The few years she spends incarcerated, however, only serve to harden her more and make her more rebellious. She has high ambitions and feels she's destined for something great.

More than anything, she desires -- while overthrowing a corrupt and oppressive government -- to help her people, to make women realize that there's more for them than simply being housewives or mothers, and to enlighten the citizens about what's outside the city domes - freedom and hope for all. And the first thing she must do is escape. Will Jemma succeed? Will she live to overthrow the government and see the freedom of her people in spite of the prize that's being put on her head?

Jemma7729 is a clever and thought-provoking novel with lots of action. The narrative moves at a quick pace, propelled by Jemma's sharp wit and crisp dialogue. But at the center of it all is Jemma herself - brave, rebellious, definitely too strong for her own good, yet sensitive at the same time. Wray has painted a vivid world filled with original, interesting rules and way of life, transporting the reader to another place and time. I highly recommend this novel not only to fans of SF, but also to those readers who enjoy women's fiction.

The story is over, and Jemma is telling her tale, and she's telling it from the beginning. She lives in a classic dystopian world, totalitarian and oppressive, patriarchical and patronizing. Men and women in this society have no last names, they are just given numbers, and they are give a limited ability to choose their future. Men must put women on a pedestal, be kind and gentle to them, and women must always obey the men, and never rebel, and they must know their place, after all, according to all of the history texts, the world was almost destroyed by the aggressive nature of women.

Jemma's story starts when she is a young lass of five when a boy teases her and she slaps him upside the head (GO GIRL!!!) and she is punished and has to apologize. Then at age seven, she has to choose what she may be for the rest of her life; mostly she has to choose to be a wife, as almost anything else would require her to be "altered" (lobotomized) to make her personality more manageable. Having no choice, she chooses to be a wife and spends the next couple of years in tutoring. This means that she has to curtail her inquisitiveness, stop her sports, and learn to conform. Eventually comes the day at age ten when she must publicly and permanently choose her path in life. Jemma decides not to make a choice and she is then sent to rehab, where she is abused, physically, mentally, and sexually, and abandoned by her parents.

Then one day she sees her chance and escapes, and here starts her life as a rebel. Eventually she finds her way into the countryside where she finds sympathetic people, and learns to strike back against the system.

Jemma is a classic young woman in the mold of Robert Heinlein's Podkayne, spunky, intelligent, and independent, and this leads Jemma on a mission to rebel and to try to overthrow the autocratic elite. "Jemma7729" follows her growth as a person, and her maturity as a young woman, and we see the changes that she causes in her world by taking charge of her life and destiny. Her life ain't easy, but then it never is for people with a purpose in life.

I mentioned Robert Heinlein in the last paragraph and while reading "Jemma7729" you realize what an influence his juveniles have had on imaginative literature, as his fingerprints are not only all over this novel but his influence can even be found in the character of Cassie in the horror novel "City Infernal" (NOT a juvenile). So, if you like Heinlein's juveniles and wish that somebody would write one just like them, then you'll want to get this novel. There's no doubt that this novel should have been published by Tor or Bean Books, but it's not, so get this small-press novel as soon as you can, or get your library to order it. It's an attractive and sturdy trade paperback, with easy to read type, and a heck of a great cover by David Willicome.

While this may be a juvenile, it really is a book for all ages, and was especially refreshing to read after living the last eight years in a society that was run by a bunch of conservative wannabe totalitarians, and their media toadies. I look forward to Phoebe Wray's next novel, if there is one.

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